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OK... how to put border.. the simplest step is make a new layer.. make sure that its the toppest layer .... then select all... you should see the marching ant around the image. Simply go to Edit->Stroke ^^

Text blending in the BG.. simplest one ... lower the opacity and change the blending option for the text layer ... both can be find on the layer window

__________________

“This be the realest shit I ever wrote.” ~Tupac
So very dead right now.. but still breathing thank you.

thanx! i'll try practicing. oh and how can you make an image into something transparent?

For transparency you will need to save the image as a GIF or PNG. There seems to be some problems with IE displaying PNG correctly tho. The transparent areas shows up as a funky blue. Anyways, just delete the areas you want to be transparent in Photoshop or ImageReadyand save it in the above 2 formats.

To make something like this :
I just create consecutive groups each containing oneanother and create difrent masks for each, ending up with the disign I want ... however there is a limitation of only 5 groups... basicly limiting my creative side

My question is how do I merge selections ? so that I will only nead to use just one layer mask.

Of course I could draw the selection but it would be better if I could use some of the tools to crate nice little circles and other stuff.

Hmm... So many Tutorial, they can be handy.. though can you remember them all? For people who dont know about them, Short-cuts are really! Cool!! to cool for some people

//The Action tab which you use, is located right next to the Layers tab// You cant! miss it. If you Do please PM me and you will get some well needed help....

-> Click : Create new action

Spoiler:

-> Type name of the action, and what keys you want to use.
-> Click Record: Right now it is recording nearly every action you make in image ready, so only do what you want to record. ( if you make a mistake, there is a delete button next the [Create new action] you can use.

Spoiler:

->For this short-cut I'm making a simple 1px border. So the only actions I do are.-> Crtl + A
-> EDIT -> Stroke -> 1 px black

Spoiler:

-> press Stop

Spoiler:

Now! When ever you want to, use a 1 black px border all you have to do is press
-> Crt + Shift + F10 ( Though You can asign it to just pressing [ F2 ] which is alot easier )

Very! simple Tutorial, should be Idoit Proof, if I made it Clear. I think Catgirls might have made some quick tut. on it else-where but cant find it >.> Anyway Go cRazy with Short-cuts now!

Needless to say.. if you didn't get anything from this, you will learn but one! thing Dont! piss Kenshin off.

We can make simple cyrcles, squares etc mm.. but what if we want to make a more complex shape for example.
Why?!.. To use it as a border for example:
--------------
--------------

MethodThe How To...

Everything is very straight forward and is done with Photoshop/ImageReady's integrated features.
Before continuing make sure you have an understanding of how to add a rounded border. If you don't, read: Making Rounded Borders.

The key lies in making the selection.
When you make a normal selection you'll notice that if you try to make it again the previous selection is deleted and replaced by the new one.

This is do to the settings in the status bar located right bellow the main menu bar.

Question for BlackCat ok so I've got the round borders trick but still confused when i make the borders and stroke them this is how it turns out

SweetHoney I presume you are refering on how to eliminate stuff like this, were rounded borders (stroke) seem to have a tendency to blend or spew out, note that even thow that's the exact border Shizuru was suppose to have in gif above it's all screwed up

Spoiler for Images:

Unfortunatly I seem to be strugeling with the same problem

//edit

Ok I seem to have found the root of the problem. Basicly if you modify a existing gif (by changing it's size then aplying everything else) the borders go all shity ... starting from scratch seems to be the best solution.
Here's a Natsuki Gif, no problem aparently :

This is a turorial on how to optimize the .gif file format. Note:gif is read: jif

This tutorial the direct integrated settings in ImageReady & Photoshop. You can find techniques to optimize the resulting animation in other tutorials.For example this Advanced Optimization Tutorial by Riker

In this tutorial we will start with something like this.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spoiler for Start-Windows:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've grouped some of the windows togheter for a better view, you should be able to recognize them. If you don't then look at the image bellow and make sure you have the same selected.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

In practice most of the time it makes no diffrence.
Theoreticly ImageReady would be the best choise since you may delete things like frames, change timing, run the animation while still in optimize mode.Note: If you're a begginer and have trouble with the above try ImageReady.Starting-Off in ImageReadyDoing it in ImageReady...

Click on the Optimize Tab in the pallet (window) from the right of the main image-window, and then on the Optimized, 2-up or 4-up in the main-image-window.

You should have something like...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes
Bellow each image is listed the actual size of the resulting optimized version.
In the example these are 65.1k, 52.23k, 45.43k, not counting the original, which is the first one (left corner top).

Bellow that is the time it would take for it to load on a poor conection.
The "@" sing is read as "at" so for example "Cats@EmailAddres.com" is read as "Cats at EmailAddress.com" or "@ User" is read as "at User". Believe it or not some people actually don't know this

Infreaquantly Asqued Questions

Q. Why is there a pallet in ImageReady.

To make it posible to optimize multiple parts of the image simultaniasly. This is used generally with slices where multiple images are generated from a single one optimized in diffrent ways.

Q. What's with Optimized , 2-up, 4-up

They simply indicate how many windows (actually versions) of the image are up. (as in "you see")

Why would you need it?!... Well let's say you've mingled with the settings somewhat, but aren't that satisfied and want to try out something diffrent. What you would do is select another one of those little images that way you can see if the new settings are better or worse by looking at the previous one.

This about covers what you need to do in IR to get started move on to The Settings title.

Starting-Off in PhotoshopDoing it in Photoshop...

It's quite simple. You go File » Save for web.... Then click the 4-up tab, preferably~A dialog box resembling the Optimize Pallet in IR should appear.
Now just move on to the next title.

The Settings
In the Optimize Pallet...

Before you continue make sure you have format set to: GIF
Now how do we get a jif under 50Kb Mmm...Open all 4 drop downs: Color Table, Dither, Transprency, Options

Static StuffJust leave them like I say bellow.

Add Metadata:OffThis adds extra information, like author etc. As a concequence to the size.

Interlaced:OffThis will make it so your image loads first as a low quality version taking up the space and then slowly as the actual thing. This just adds to the size.

Web Snap:0%Posible THE ULTIMATE LAST RESORT. Do not use it. Quality dies.

The WorksDown and Dirty business...

In the Optimize Pallet there are 4 points of intrest. Do note that optimizing doesn't mean we intent to make the image smaller while sheeterizing quality.

Reduction
There are two setting for this, that actually do something useful.

The first, my fav, is Perceptual this will produce small fall size.The second, is Adaptive, this produces a larger file size, but it's keeps more quality.

Oh but what if you want to keep some little gradient somewhere. Let's face it all the setting here would totally screw with it. Well the solution is simple. You first make a selection of the incy little pieces you want to preserve (don't select too much) then you would save it. Now in your optimize pallet you would go to reduction, and click the little rectangle with square next to it. In the channels drop-down select you saved selection and click ok. Now whatever you had selected is excluded from optimization.

Bellow is a pic that show the position of this option for Reduction, Loosy & Color
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lossy
This will optimize the file withouth loosing quality. Loseless compression sorta speak. Well that's a lil' white lie in the end you do loose quality.

Anyway, values from 1 to 10 are safe enough. You also have the rectangle-cyrcle thingy next to it, just like for Reduction.

Colors
The formula is this:
More Colors = More Quality
Less Colors = Smaller FileSize
So we need to have the optimum amount of colors in our image.

The easy way out is to, in the Optimize Pallet, click the little triangle just bellow the X that closes it. Then select Optimize to File Size... now enter 50 and your color problems are over.

The hard way out, is to either manually enter new color numbers for the colors. Or click the little icon next to it to bring up the Color Table and manually delete colors. Please note that this is very "leetesh" to say the least and takes a great deal of understanding of how colors work in an image as well as just trial and error error error.

DitherDiffusion is the only sane Method for Dither, all other increase the filesize. The value ranges for Dither are as follows:
85% - 100% » insane filesize increase with no quality increase
51% - 84% » relative
0% - 50% » quality increase with almost no filesize increase

As you increase the value you'll notice that little dot's appear (just zoom in and see). These dots go from dark to light generally so at 100% they will cover all the colors while at lower values they might only cover the dark tones in the image.

Other Optimizing NotesAnswers, Tips & Tricks

Q. When can I optimize it to 50k?

If when you enter optimize mode with the settings maxed out the filesize is over 100 ~ 110kb, don't bother, optimizing things like that is going into the ugly zone.

Complexity Charts for Optimizing Animations.
-------------------------Complexity Level :ADescription : Avatars of a simple scenes, like a character blinking or some simple expression or movement.Example : Black kitty drinking milk.Result : High Quality 100% of the time.

Complexity Level :SDescription : Avatars with a little more complexity, character moving more in them or a scene camera change, colors moving on the screen.Example : Scene with black kitty drinking milk and a bottle next to the kitty.. bottle braking in next scene due to gunshot. *scene change to a static of a catgirl*Result : Medium to High Quality, minor quality loss sometimes.

Complexity Level :SSDescription : Long battle scenes, characters and objects flying around, generally long 'unstable' sequences with tons of movement..Example : Black kitty running and dodging bullets with tons of objects breaking left and right.Result : Low to Medium Quality MAX. Scene-chop is to be expected, 100x100 Square is out of the question. 50/50 success rate in general.

For Animated Sigs the complexity level goes down 1.5 levels compared to Avatars (meaning SS is impossible with currently allowed file formats) for the big ones. Higher complexity levels become possible by decreasing size closer to avatar level.

S and SS classa take lots of time and patience.
-------------------------Here are 3 examples:

A Class . .

S Class .

SS Class . . . .

Hopefully that was clear enough to give you a basic perspective on things.

Downsampling Settings

When you're downsampling a image.. uhh?!.. ok sorry, when you're resizing an image to a smaller size in px dimentions, yes concerning that there are a few boring things you should be aware of.

Well in the Image » Image Size... dialog box you should see a small drop down menu, that should have the value Bicubic. Well if you click it you'll notice several other options, instead of explaining any further I'll just give an example.

In .../My documents/My pictures folder there should be a file Blue_Hills.jpg
To ilustrate the difrences in size I'll just resize it to 500x225, and save it under the Gif 128 dithered setting. Here's what happens if I chouse a diffrent method.

A fast but less precise method that replicates the pixels in an image. This method is for use with illustrations containing edges that are not anti-aliased, to preserve hard edges and produce a smaller file. However, this method can produce jagged effects, which become apparent when you distort or scale an image or perform multiple manipulations on a selection.

Bilinear

A method that adds pixels by averaging the color values of surrounding pixels. It produces medium-quality results.

Bicubic

A slower but more precise method based on an examination of the values of surrounding pixels. Using more complex calculations, Bicubic produces smoother tonal gradations than Nearest Neighbor or Bilinear.

Bicubic Smoother

A good method for enlarging images based on Bicubic interpolation but designed to produce smoother results.

Bicubic Sharper

A good method for reducing the size of an image based on Bicubic interpolation with enhanced sharpening. This method maintains the detail in a resampled image. If Bicubic Sharper oversharpens some areas of an image, try using Bicubic.

Yeah that's the long way around the bush. Basicly Bicubic is good for gradients and the rest well... just go by trial and error.

The Contrast Trick

Notice how in the exampels above the colors have been lightened or darkened by a lot. Well by doing this I've eliminated a lot of colors making it smaller.

Playing with Levels/Curves (both do the same thing) or with other settings will generally produce a better image while also producing a smaller one.

Frame Capture

When you capture your frames try to save them at the highest quality posible. This will prevent artifacts, and produce solid colors. The more 'solid' the colors in your image are over the course of the animation the better.

If you encounter problems when loading them in ImageReady try routing them out early, before going to image ready by going to the folder they are saved in and using the film-strip display mode deleting the duplicates.

Timing

You may find that after you've deleted a lot of frames, the timing is screwed. Well it happens. The way to preserve the original timing is this.

First select all the frames and set the timing to .01 then start chopping frames off, only for each remember to count them and add the timing to the last one. For example if you have 3 duplicates you would delete 2 and add .02 to the 3rd, so it would have .03

Rememer not to delete key frames. Key frames are the start and end point in an animation they generally have a little longer pause or are higher quality then tween frames (the ones inbetween key-frames). Deleting key-frames is never good... NEVER

When deleting tween frames delete either the 2nd or the 3rd for example in the sequence: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 you are advised to delete frames 2 4 6 8 or 3 6 9. This way the flow of the animation isn't disturbed.

Final NoteThe awfull truth...

Many people seem to believe that the Resolution of the image, as in the ppi (that you can change in Image » Image Size) actually makes a diffrence in quality. Well it got me going for a while, but apparently other then the quality of the printed out versions it doesn't effect web quality at all. You can mess with it, but you're wasting your time. Pixels per Inche (ppi) are only for printers.

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Last edited by felix; 2007-04-07 at 13:44.
Reason: Moved -Quick Check List- to Main Index.

If you used a lot of transparent av, its wise to set matte to none, or else, you get some white specks in the transparent area.

Another manual choice to drop the size is use the dithering amount, even the automate option used different dithering amount.

Another one is the lossy option, if you are short of 1 or 2 Kb from your intended size (50Kb) use lossy option to tone down the filesize, you lost a bit of quality, but if you end up using higher amount then 10 for lossy, try something else, keep lossy amount as the last option to trim down filesize

__________________

“This be the realest shit I ever wrote.” ~Tupac
So very dead right now.. but still breathing thank you.

Great tutorials It was of great help to a beginner like me. One question about avatar borders: I just knew how to make simple avatars out of screenshots, and I wanted to add a simple border round it (like those I see around). How can I make/put in borders like the one in my avatar? Or I have to DL brushes for it? (I can't seem to find simple borders....)Thanks in advamce

That's because you have feather to 25px ... set it to 0px (it's the option next to anti-aliased in the same bar were you select the radios for yor corners, in your image it's just bellow the main menu bar)